


The Stars Have Been Giving Her Trouble

by Hecate



Category: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Genre: Chicago (City), Dysfunctional Family, Family Feels, Female Friendship, Female Protagonist, Female-Centric, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, space, space travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-14 23:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13018221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hecate/pseuds/Hecate
Summary: After Jupiter's return to Earth, she wants to find out more about Seraphi. Kalique still yearns for her second chance.[Or: What is better than eternal life? Coffee and Chicago.]





	The Stars Have Been Giving Her Trouble

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lauren (notalwaysweak)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/gifts).



Jupiter never wanted kids. She wasn't interested in the sound of children laughing or little feet pounding through the house, never cared about the babies she saw around her. Jupiter always dreamt of bigger things, always dreamt of the stars.

She had too much of her father inside of her, her mother would say.

Too much of her father and too much of the Abrasax family, and she wonders now if her father carried some memory of that family inside of him as well, some hint of Seraphi that told him to look up at the skies, to make attempt after attempt to reach out and touch the stars.

But a telescope is not a spaceship, and a Jones could never be an Abrasax. Her father, Jupiter knows, would have hated the stars once he learned about the deaths that were hidden beneath their light, once he had learned about the harvesting and Regenex, the horror of an industry that eats people and spits out time.

Her mother wouldn't have loved a man who could forgive such a thing. 

But Jupiter isn't him, might be a Jones but she is an Abrasax as well, and the universe has not let go of her. Even after everything it did to her, Jupiter still yearns for its vastness, for the lights that burn all the way through its darkness so she can see them. And she so dearly wants to see them.

Her mother asks her not to go, but Jupiter leaves Earth again anyway, she throws herself into the black, and for a moment, with an Aegis ship solid and gleaming all around her, she thinks of never coming back. It's a stupid thought.

She is a Bolotnikov, too, a traveller with purpose and hope, and she belongs on Earth even if Earth is the only place where her name means nothing, while the rest of the universe thinks of her as of royal blood. She is a Bolotnikov. She held on to that when Balem came after her, when Titus manipulated her, when Kalique asked for her mother. And she will return home.

But for now, Seraphi calls to her.

And there is only one place Jupiter could go to meet her.

Kalique's home is gleaming in blues and greens and so many shades of red, a fantasy of a planet, calm and clean. Jupiter wonders, for a bleak moment, if there had been a civilization living on those grounds centuries ago, hands seeding the soil, hands building homes, hands that touched and caressed. Hands that were made into time by Kalique before she settled beneath the clear sky.

She's afraid of the answer.

Kalique greets her with a smile, fond and benign, her hand soft when she reaches for Jupiter's, when she walks with her into her home. "Jupiter," she says, "it's good to see you again."

Jupiter nods and wonders if Kalique knows about her brother's death, about Jupiter's hand in it. It's another question she doesn't dare ask. The Abrasax are volatile, they are powerful, and she isn't ready for another battle with any of them.

They settle into a room filled with warm light, the walls covered in rich draperies, the chair she settles on so comfortable Jupiter yearns for sleep, for dreams that are free of the things she came to know in the last few weeks.

"How are you?" Kalique asks. "You must be exhausted."

Jupiter tries a smile. "Yeah. I am. It's been ... something."

Soft laughter, Kalique looking at her with inquisitive eyes. "I should have warned you about Titus. He always had a sense for the dramatic."

For a moment, Jupiter can't think, can't quite grasp what Kalique said because Titus lied to her, tried to kill Caine, tried to kill _her_. And he did it to get his hands on Earth, on her home, so he could drain it of all life just for money, and she can't, she _can't_.

"Sense for the dramatic?" she asks, and there's anger in her voice, in her heart, and she doesn't quite know what she is doing here, in this place filled with riches and people who murder for time.

Kalique smiles. "You even sound like her."

Jupiter gets up then, pulls herself up, and tries to be bigger, stronger than she is, tries to be the woman that killed Balem and not the one that jerked away when he screamed.

"I am not your mother," she says, and she forces the steel of her mother's family into her voice.

Her mother who survived her husband's death, who carried Jupiter across half an ocean inside of her, who carried her the rest of the way wrapped up in a blanket and hope and love and worry. Her mother, who fought so hard for them throughout the years, who was world-weary and tired and angry and yet didn't give in.

Jupiter doesn't want Seraphi in her voice instead of her mother, not now, not ever.

"Not quite her," Kalique says after the stillness has settled around them for a few moments, after Jupiter's anger has settled, too. "Just the chance you could be like her."

And there is this sad longing in Kalique's voice, frail and brittle, and for an odd moment Jupiter wants to reach out, wants to comfort and make promises of a better future, promises of things just being fine. She pushes it away.

"No," she says. "I would never do what she did. What you do."

A flash of disdain, and Jupiter sees Balem in Kalique's face, in the soft lines of her youth. When Kalique speaks again, Jupiter hears the impatience in it, controlled and yet traceable. "You're far too young to understand what you're talking about. Your planet is far too young."

Jupiter scowls. "You mean the planet your family wanted to harvest?"

Kalique shrugs, an almost elegant gesture. "It's the way of the universe."

"Only because you're making it this way," Jupiter says, and just like that she is angry again. "Because you're getting something out of it."

A snort, not elegant at all, and Jupiter almost hates Kalique for it.

"The whole universe is getting something from it, Jupiter. The whole universe buys the time we sell." Kalique gets up then, walks the few steps that separate her from Jupiter. "Not even my mother could change that."

And there it is, the thing Titus talked about, the hook he used to pull her in. Seraphi had changed, had wanted to stop the way the universe ran on the deaths of millions, and she had died because of it, had died because of Balem and his greed.

"Tell me about that," she asks. "What made her change?"

Kalique frowns. "I don't know, Jupiter. We were arguing all the time at that point. And then, she was dead." A smile, and Kalique touches her again, her fingers dancing over Jupiter's face for a few seconds. "And now you're here, and you are filled with the same foolish thoughts."

Jupiter slaps her hand away. "There is nothing foolish about not wanting to murder millions of people." And she walks away from Kalique. She doesn't want to listen to the horrible things Kalique says so easily, doesn't want to listen when she talks about death and destruction as if it was all normal when you live on the wrong planet. It reminds her of Balem, of her almost sacrificing her family so she could save Earth, and that is a part of herself she isn't ready to face again just yet.

She turns back to Kalique then, and her triumph over Balem straightens her body and fills her voice. "He killed her, you know. Balem killed your mother."

Kalique stares at her, face gone blank for the briefest of moments, for one stuttering breath. Then, she nods. "I always wondered..." She shakes her head, a sharp gesture. "It's fitting then, isn't it? That you killed him?"

Jupiter breathes. "You know."

"Of course I do. There's not much I don't know. I'm an Abrasax, after all, and we deal in time and secrets."

"He tried to take Earth away from me, he had my family. I had to," Jupiter says. She tells herself to be quiet about the rest, about his insistence on her being Seraphi, about her not ever feeling sorry for not reaching out to save him.

"I'm sure you did. My mother would have done the same," Kalique says.

The words burn, and Jupiter grimaces when she hears them. She's not Seraphi.

"Will you stay for a while?" Kalique asks her. "I know that you don't see the universe like I do but you _are_ my mother's recurrence, and I hoped that you would be born in my time."

Jupiter looks at Kalique and sees that yearning again, sees a woman who has been alive for centuries, who has seen civilizations turn to dust and ruin and profited from that. It doesn't fit together, refuses to. She wonders what Seraphi's absence feels like for Kalique, if her grief feels just like her own would or if Kalique is monster enough for her losses to be different.

“Yes,” she finally says. “I can stay for a bit.”

Kalique smiles, and Jupiter doesn't know why she agreed to this, why she lets herself be led to a lavish room by a servant. Why she stays. But she does, and in that room planets away from home she dreams of a woman who looks just like her, dreams of humanity falling to dust, dreams of staying young forever.

She wakes with a whimper, cities still burning in her mind, and she is almost glad for the servants that come in moments later to help her dress. Still, she insists on simple clothes, insists on putting them on herself. She is still a Jones, after all.

Kalique waits for her with breakfast, waits for her with plans of showing Jupiter her home. Jupiter agrees, and soon they're flying across woods and lakes and mountains, and Jupiter can't stop staring at the world stretching out beneath her. There are no cities there, no people, and maybe this place was never seeded, was never used for Regenex. Maybe Kalique liked it too much to share it.

“My brother,” Kalique suddenly says, and Jupiter looks away from a field of flowers that bloom into a sea of red. “My brother,” Kalique repeats. She breathes deeply, shaking, and Jupiter remembers Balem screaming, remembers Balem falling, and she doesn't want to talk about him.

“Titus?” she asks.

Kalique chuckles.

Jupiter goes on, not waiting for Kalique to correct her. “Is it normal? For family members to marry a recurrence? Because on Earth, that would be _weird_.”

Kalique laughs, and it's such a soft sound, almost like a melody. Jupiter could like that laughter, she decides.

“It's not unheard of,” Kalique says. “And I'm not surprised Titus made an attempt. Even if he hadn't planned to kill you. Balem would have hated that union.” Then, a sharp smile. “Balem always hated sharing our mother.”

Jupiter swallows her usual reply, doesn't remind Kalique that she isn't Seraphi. Instead, she asks: “Were Seraphi and Titus close? He made it seem that way.”

Kalique nods. “They were, and they weren't. It's hard to be close to someone for centuries. Even if it's your mother. The love just …. goes away at times.”

It's a bitter thought, something Jupiter can't imagine, can't grasp. “Did your love go away?” she asks instead, unwilling to think herself so old and distant that she would stop loving her mother.

Another smile, a sad, little thing, and Kalique looks away as she answers. “I guess it did.”

And Jupiter knows with sharp clarity that Kalique is just as dangerous as Balem had been, that Kalique can be merciless and careless when it comes to human life, knows that Seraphi's face might be protection but it won't protect her from everything.

'Tread softly,' she tells herself, 'and don't step on her dreams.'

The flight back to Kalique's home is silent.

At night, she dreams of falling, dreams of burning alive in the ruins of Balem's refinery. She wakes in the dark, reaching out for the reassurance of her own room on Earth, reaching out for her mother. Finds nothing and feels trapped in all the space Kalique gave her when she offered the room Jupiter is sleeping in. She remembers burning, and she wonders, for the first time, if Sephari suffered as she died.

She stays awake for the rest of the night.

When dawn creeps across the sky and into her room, Jupiter gets up, get dressed, and walks the hallways of Kalique's home until she reaches the room Kalique filled with candles and her mother's icon. It's still eerie to see her own face immortalized in stone, to see herself as a statue, like a goddess, like a piece of art. It's hard to look at. And yet Jupiter doesn't turn away.

Kalique finds her there, her steps quiet as she crosses the room to stand at Jupiter's side. "I didn't grieve for her at first," Kalique says. "I didn't grieve for years. I don't quite know when that changed. I don't remember." A sad smile, and Kalique touches Jupiter's hand, takes it into her own. "We can make our bodies, our lives, last for millennia. But we can't do the same with our memories."

"Maybe that should be telling you something. Like, don't turn yourself into a space vampire," Jupiter says, voice harsh. But she doesn't pull her hand away. And she stays.

Later, Kalique takes her to the sea, a rolling monster of deep blues and greens and greys. It reminds Jupiter of the Atlantic, of the sadness and freedom that live in its waves. But the air tastes too sweet at Kalique's home, and Jupiter can't get lost in the idea that she is back under a more familiar sky. Instead, she misses Earth.

Kalique, too, looks lost in thoughts.

They're silent together for hours, sitting on a soft blanket, the waves the only sound around them, the servants vanished. It's almost comfortable, almost but not quite, and Jupiter thinks of her own mother, thinks of Seraphi.

"My brother," Kalique says when the sun thinks of setting, "my brother was never a happy child. I blame our mother for that." She gets up then, looks down at Jupiter, and for a moment she looks angry, she looks as if she was seeing Seraphi and not Jupiter. "She made him harder than he needed to be."

"I think he hated her," Jupiter says.

Kalique shakes her head. "No, he loved her more than Titus or I did. I think that might be the worst part."

Jupiter gets up then, too, too uneasy with Kalique standing above her. She learned her lesson with Balem and Titus. 

They walk together for a while, sinking into the sand with every step, the world around them burning in yellow and red as the sun goes down.

"I never expected to grieve for him," Kalique says.

Jupiter almost takes her hand.

That night, there are no dreams haunting Jupiter's sleep, and she doesn't miss them.

Time passes like this for a little while, Kalique and her walking the planet, speaking in pauses and parts of confrontations. It's a strange life, restless in some manner, and Jupiter doubts that Kalique usually spends her days like this. There must be something else in her life, something more, and Jupiter fears it's the Regenex industry, hopes it, too. Time spent with her can't be spent on the deaths of billions, no matter how much Regenex Kalique uses.

Titus comes to them a few days later.

Kalique greets him with an amused smile. Jupiter punches him.

She smiles when he stumbles away from her, holding his face, and even when his guards raise their weapons, she isn't afraid. She had dealt with his brother with a refinery breaking apart and burning to ruin all around her, she can deal with him. Besides, Kalique's guards have pulled their weapons as well, and they are not aiming at Jupiter.

"Well," Kalique says, and Jupiter knows the fond note in her voice by now, has heard it more than once, "you certainly deserved that, brother."

Titus glares at them, and Jupiter grins with satisfaction when she sees the blood on his perfect lips. Still, it's hard not to punch him again, not to grab one of the guns and shoot him. But she can't take another brother away from Kalique, can't leave her alone in this universe when she herself won't ever be Seraphi for her. So she turns around, and she walks away. 

Her room welcomes her with cool emptiness.

Kalique finds her hours later, letting herself in after a few knocks. She asks, "Will you eat dinner with us?", and she looks as if she wants Jupiter to say yes. Expects her to, even.

"He tried to kill me," Jupiter says.

Kalique nods. "But you're safe here. And you're..." She stops herself then, looks away for the briefest of moments. "He loved our mother more than I did."

Jupiter shrugs. "That didn't stop him."

"You can't expect it to, Jupiter. We're different than the humans from your planet. We live for such a long time, and even when we die, we might be reborn."

"But you won't be the same," Jupiter says. "I'm not Seraphi, remember? Balem killed her, and she didn't come back. I just got her DNA. And her planet. But I'm not her."

Kalique just looks at her, and Jupiter remembers that to her, Jupiter could still become so much like Seraphi that she might as well be her. It's a frightening idea, and Jupiter does not want to have anything to do with it.

“Please,” Kalique says, and it should be easy to refuse her, even as surprising as the request is. But it's not easy, it's impossible, and when she finally assents it feels as if some kind of burden is lifted from her shoulders.

Titus stands up when they walk into the room, bowing to the both of them. Jupiter imagines him falling to his death just like Balem did, thinks that she became harder since finding out about the universe. Was made harder, and maybe it's better this way, maybe it _needs_ to be this way. Earth is hers, after all, and there are people in the universe who would kill just to have it.

They eat in silence for the longest time, the sounds of knives and forks and servants not enough to make the meal any less awkward or tense.

Then, Titus speaks. "Have you tried Regenex by now, Jupiter? My sister's product is one of the best in the universe. After mine, of course."

Jupiter stops eating, puts her cutlery down with steady hands. Breathes into her anger, her disgust and answers: "No. And I don't intend to."

Titus laughs. "Wait for a few years, get a few wrinkles and aching joints, and you will use Regenex, too."

Jupiter thinks about punching him again. "No," she says instead, "I won't."

Titus only raises an eyebrow, and she knows he doesn't believe her. "What about your precious Earth, then? With you gone after such a short life..."

"I'll give it to someone else," Jupiter replies. "And it won't be one of you."

"You think it's that easy?" Titus asks.

Jupiter raises her head, puts every bit of her mother's perseverance on her face, a Bolotnikov through and through even though she doesn't carry her mother's name. And she stares into Titus' eyes. "I have years to make it that easy."

Titus pulls back, leans away from her, and for a moment some kind of worry seems to break through his façade before he smiles at her again. "It seems that there are some interesting years ahead of us, sister."

Kalique nods. "That was always bound to happen with Seraphi."

Kalique asks Titus about his production line then, about profits and losses, and it's a chilling conversation. Numbers and calculations, billions put to death. Jupiter almost leaves, but she remains in her seat, listens to the back and forth between them. She might need the information one day.

That night, Jupiter dreams of her mother turning to ashes in front of her.

She wakes up crying.

Titus leaves in the morning. Jupiter is glad of it. But the strange and tranquil routine that had grown between her and Kalique before his arrival doesn't return. Their rhythm is lost to tension and frustration.

Jupiter thinks of leaving, thinks of going home. But then Kalique asks her to travel to another planet with her, and Jupiter thinks of her father and his telescope, thinks of all the times he looked up at the stars, and she can't say no to Kalique and everything she offers. 

She almost regrets it when it takes days to cross the distance between the planets, the time passing slowly inside the spaceship. Space travel isn't as exciting as it used to be during her first steps into the universe, and not even the luxury of Kalique's ship can't hide that they are in a metal tin with nothing much to do but spend time with each other.

"How many planets did you visit so far?" Jupiter asks Kalique, and gets a smile in return.

"Too many to count," she says. "And I mostly remember those that are dear to me."

Jupiter can't imagine what it must be like, being so old and travelling so far that the places you have seen fade away in your memory. It sounds horrible.

"Like Earth has been to Seraphi?" she goes on.

Kalique smiles, and there is some kind of sharpness in it, bitterness as well. "Nobody cares about their estates as much as Seraphi cared about Earth."

_Don't be jealous of a planet, _Jupiter thinks, _it's unbecoming._ Aloud, she asks: "Have you ever been to Earth?"__

__Kalique shakes her head. Jupiter doesn't ask her why out of so many planets she had chosen to pass the Earth by._ _

__The planet greets them with a grey sky and clouds of smog, a fine rain coming down. It's crowded, buildings standing together in tight groups, hardly letting in the light from above. It's a shock after the tranquillity and space of Kalique's home, and Jupiter thinks she might hate that planet on first sight._ _

__Kalique reaches out and touches her hand. "I have business to attend to here. Why don't you walk around for a bit? An adventure, so to say..."_ _

__Jupiter nods, and she is relieved when Kalique sends some of her guards with her. She would be lost within moments if she were left on her own. She walks through the streets with the guards trailing her, looking at the people, the buildings, the streets. There are no plants and hardly any colours; the city a sad, bulging thing that overflows with people and waste._ _

__It's quieter than any city Jupiter has visited on Earth, though, and she wonders if the inhabitants might be telepathic, might talk without her hearing it. Or maybe they had just given up on communicating, maybe there is nothing left to talk about in a place like that._ _

__When Kalique hails her guards to tell Jupiter that it's time to return, she goes gladly._ _

__Kalique greets her with a smile. "What do you think?"_ _

__"About the planet? It's ... not pretty," Jupiter says._ _

__"Yes. That is not unexpected, though. When we leave planets alone too long, they go to waste. We usually harvest the product before this kind of thing happens. It's bad for Regenex quality."_ _

__Jupiter looks at Kalique, looks at the people all around her, and there's a sudden unease growing inside of her, an ache yet without purpose._ _

__“Kalique,” she says, asks, and she knows the answer, knows it with horrible certainty, and she wants to run into the crowd, wants to scream to warn them. But it would be useless, a foolish thing to do. They have nowhere to go, no way to save themselves, and they wouldn't believe her anyway. So she stands still, she looks at Kalique, looks at the people around her, and the grey seems to fade away until she sees all the dreams and hopes and potential in the crowd._ _

__It's unbearable._ _

__“Isn't this better?” Kalique asks. “That it's all over, and it can all start again? Clean and new?”_ _

__Jupiter shakes her head, and she thinks she might cry for this ugly, beautiful planet, for a world she doesn't know, doesn't understand. "Don't you ever think about all the things they could still do?"_ _

__Kalique shrugs. “So somebody else will do them.“_ _

__And in that sharp moment, Jupiter hates her, and she can't imagine ever getting over that feeling completely. It's going to remain inside of her, in the nooks of her mind, in the lines of her thoughts._ _

__"How can you live with yourself?" she asks, and she thinks she never sounded like this before, her own voice suddenly something unknown._ _

__And Kalique smiles at her, sad and bitter, smiles and reaches out to touch Jupiter once more._ _

__Jupiter steps away._ _

__"My mother said the same thing to me once," Kalique tells her. "And she sounded just like you."_ _

__It's the first time Jupiter thinks that Seraphi might have had something good inside of her, something worth keeping. It's funny that it was that part that cost Seraphi her life._ _

__“Come,” Kalique says, “it's time to go home.”_ _

__And Jupiter goes with her, hollow and helpless, and when the spaceship and Kalique leave a civilization in the dust, she sits in her room on the ship, staring at the walls. She doesn't talk to Kalique on the way back to Cerise, doesn't speak when she walks past the statues of Seraphi on the landing pack at the alcazar._ _

__She's silent just as the dead are._ _

__Jupiter dreams of Earth, night after night, she dreams of Earth and her family. She dreams her father back to life, a stranger she only knows from stories and photographs, and he’s standing in front of her, close enough to touch. But he dies, again and again, and Jupiter cries for him when she wakes, cries for her mother._ _

__And she wants to go home._ _

__She finds Kalique on a balcony, she finds her dressed in blue, and it reminds her of dust instead of the skies, reminds her of the grey planet she didn't even try to save._ _

__Kalique turns to her and smiles._ _

__“Come to Earth with me,” Jupiter says._ _

__Kalique nods._ _

__And Jupiter doesn't quite know where the idea came from, doesn't quite understand Kalique's easy approval, but it doesn't matter all that much. She's going home. Things will make sense there again._ _

__Things will be bearable again._ _

__She spends the way to Earth in front of large windows, getting lost in the vast emptiness that surrounds them for so many hours of the way, black like mourning clothes, devoid of life. She sees stars, too, planets, bright in the distance, and she wonders if they're teeming with life, if they're empty and covered with dust, a room no one has entered in decades._ _

__Kalique sits with her sometimes._ _

__She points at the worlds then, one after the other, and she tells her who owns them, tells her about families Jupiter hasn't heard of before. And Jupiter thinks that Kalique doesn't even notice that she's breaking her heart._ _

__But she doesn't stop Kalique. She wouldn't know how anyway._ _

__Earth is a bright light in the distance for the longest time, a promise of a safe haven, and it fills Jupiter with hope, weary and used and yet something to hold on to. She thinks that this might be how her mother felt when she first saw America, and it's good to feel close to her like this again._ _

__“A beautiful estate,” Kalique says when Earth grows into blue and browns and greens, when the lights of the cities come up._ _

__“Yes,” Jupiter says, and she remembers almost dying for this world, almost sacrificing her family. She would do it again._ _

__Chicago greets them with rain, just like that forsaken planet had, and Jupiter's heart stutters, her hands turn into fists. “It's not always like this,” she tells Kalique._ _

__Kalique shrugs, and her disregard is painful._ _

__Jupiter forces a smile on her face. “You'll see,” she says, and she leads Kalique through the streets until they're home, she's home, and her mother wraps her into shaking arms._ _

__“Jupiter,” her mother says into the bend of her neck, “Jupiter,” she repeats, and Jupiter feels so much stronger beneath her hands, feels lighter, too._ _

__“Mom,” she whispers, and she lets herself be a child for seconds, protected and guarded, before she pulls away, still in her mother's reach, but standing on her own. “I missed you.”_ _

__Her mother smiles. “I missed you, too.”_ _

__Behind them, Kalique makes some kind of noise, choked off and wild, and Jupiter had forgotten about her in the warmth of her mother's embrace, had forgotten the universe for a split second. She turns to Kalique and smiles at her, knows it's all wobbly, it's human, and maybe she should be scared of what Kalique thinks of her in that moment. But her mother is by her side, so Jupiter isn't._ _

__“Kalique, that's my mom,” Jupiter says before turning to her mother. “Mom, that's Seraphi's daughter.”_ _

__And her mother knows about Seraphi, knows about what Jupiter is to the universe, because Jupiter couldn't keep it from her, not after everything, and she hadn't allowed her mother's memory to be wiped away._ _

__Jupiter watches as her mother takes one hard look at Kalique before looking at Jupiter and asking very quietly, “Is she dangerous?”_ _

__Jupiter shrugs, nods, and hopes her mother will just let it be for a few days. Aloud, she says, “I want to show her Chicago.”_ _

__Her mother raises an eyebrow at her. "And where will she sleep?"_ _

__Jupiter points up then, points up to Kalique's spaceship, hidden far above the ground, far away from humanity. It's not where Jupiter wants her, but the idea of Kalique sleeping in her home, maybe even in her bed in the room she shares with her mother and her aunt is laughable, ridiculous._ _

__"Okay," her mother says, and Jupiter hears the relief in her voice, feels it herself._ _

__"I just needed to show her the way to the house. And introduce you."_ _

__"To space royalty."_ _

__Jupiter grins. "To space royalty."_ _

__Kalique nods at her mother but walks past her without a word, walks through the house, and Jupiter follows her. Sees her home, sees Kalique's palace like a shadow over the kitchen and the living room and the room she sleeps in._ _

__"So this is your home?" Kalique says._ _

__Jupiter nods. "One and only."_ _

__Kalique makes some kind of noise, amused maybe, or maybe just filled with contempt. "You could live in places so much better suited to your blood."_ _

__"I guess I could," Jupiter answers._ _

__Kalique turns to her, and Jupiter thinks there is something like anger hiding beneath the polite smile and voice, an anger Jupiter doesn't quite understand. "Then why don't you?" Kalique asks her._ _

__"It's not what I want right now," Jupiter says, and she thinks of the statues Kalique built for Seraphi, thinks of the dresses she put that statue in, the ever regal matriarch._ _

__Kalique shakes her head, looks away from Jupiter. "I don't understand."_ _

__"Come with me tomorrow. I'll show you Chicago. Maybe that will help," Jupiter says, and smiles when Kalique nods. "Oh, and Kalique? Maybe wear something different?"_ _

__Behind them, her mother snorts._ _

__Hours later, Jupiter wakes up to the dawn colouring the living room in reds and pinks and yellows, and the sun is warm through the window, warm like her mother's hands, warm like mornings and coffee. She stretches into it, takes her time, and when she gets up, she does so slowly and with care. She wasn't like this before Kalique's family came into her life, never had the time to enjoy her morning. Never took it, either. But after, she yearned for it, for this moment in between dreaming and the routine of her days. And here, in her room, far away from the life she could live as an Abrasax, she finally has it again._ _

__She makes breakfast, coffee and toast, so much simpler than what Kalique offered her on Cerise. But it's enough for her, and she wouldn't be able to compete with Kalique anyway. Chicago has to do that for her._ _

__When Kalique arrives, Jupiter hands her a cup of coffee, grins when Kalique grimaces at the bitter taste. "It's not for everyone," Jupiter says. "But it helps people around here through the day."_ _

__Outside, the sun is shining, and Jupiter turns her face to the sky when they leave the house, grateful to her planet for playing along, for letting her show Kalique a city that deserves to live. Jupiter takes her to Lincoln Park, and she knows that the greens of her city have nothing on the colours of Cerise, can't compare in any way, but the park is still beautiful, and she has to start somewhere._ _

__Kalique walks with her, watches the animals at the zoo, and Jupiter sees her smile at times, sees her stop and take in the city around her. Jupiter leads her to the walkway bridge, and for a moment she forgets that Kalique is with her, just stares at nature dressed up in green all around her, the river in blue and the skyscrapers reaching out for the skies. It's better than Cerise in every way that matters, it's better in the way her city fills her up, is in her heartbeat and in every step she takes._ _

__Jupiter buys Kalique ice cream, and it's surreal, standing with somebody who kills civilizations, who would think nothing of murdering every single person around them, the kids with their own ice cream, the parents watching over them, the friends and lovers and lonely people. Jupiter pushes the thought away._ _

__“My mom used to take me out for ice cream when I was a kid,” Jupiter says. “Every Saturday we would go into the park, and she would wait in a line of kids with me.”_ _

__“So this is a mother thing?” Kalique asks, a curious note to her voice._ _

__Jupiter shrugs, and she forces a nonchalance into it that she doesn't feel. “Maybe,” she replies, and she takes a bite out of her ice cream cone. It's cold and oh so sweet in her mouth._ _

__Later, Kalique eats with her family, and Jupiter feels Kalique watching her with her mother. She pretends not to notice._ _

__The next day, the Garfield Conservatory blooms around them in shades of green, and they sit together in silence just like they had done on the beach on Cerise. But here, in that moment, it's not the waves they watch, it's people, and Jupiter wonders if it's their smiles Kalique sees, their hands reaching out for another, or if even sitting among them all Kalique sees is the product._ _

__Jupiter doesn't ask._ _

__Another dinner with her family, and her cousin is loud and brash, the memory of Balem and the monsters he sent for him and his family wiped clean. He gives out jobs like he always does, and her mother argues the added stress and accepts anyway. They need the money. They always need the money._ _

__"You could make it easier for your mother," Kalique says before she leaves, "You could offer her so much."_ _

__Jupiter nods. "She wouldn't choose wealth over the lives of others."_ _

__"Like you," Kalique says._ _

__"Like me," Jupiter agrees, and it must be strange for Kalique to know that Seraphi's recurrence comes after her mother when she herself didn't have all that much in common with Seraphi in the end._ _

__"I'll see you tomorrow," Kalique says, and Jupiter watches as she ascends in a beam of light. Somewhere above her city, a spaceship hides like a bird of prey._ _

__They eat breakfast in a coffee shop the next day, Jupiter choosing for Kalique, picking the sweetest things on offer. When they leave, Kalique carries a cup of coffee with her._ _

__"It has an interesting taste," she says._ _

__Jupiter nods._ _

__They take a boat to Chinatown, walk down Wentworth Avenue, and Jupiter tells Kalique about the date she went on once, a date that ended with her drunk and crying in front of a Chinese restaurant. Back then, she felt like she would never recover. Now, it's an amusing story._ _

__She leads Kalique into the park, still talking, and she jumps the fence at the edge of it easily. Behind her, Kalique hesitates, and Jupiter crosses the distance between them again, taking her hand and pulling her along. Then, they're on the bridge, and the view opens up in front of them, the skyline and the river, and the two of them stand still and suddenly silent._ _

__"It's a good view," Kalique finally admits._ _

__"We got a few of those," Jupiter replies._ _

__She finds the restaurant from all those nights ago, and she finds an empty table inside for them. The food is good, and Kalique pays with money she pulls out of nothing. It reminds Jupiter of the buildings that collapsed only to reappear out of thin air when Balem's people attacked her and Caine. It feels as if eternities have passed since then, as if she grew immeasurably older, and the distance between herself and her past is odd, almost unwelcome._ _

__Kalique comes home with her, sits with Jupiter and her family as they watch a movie, and Jupiter wonders why she stays for so long that day, why she stays on the planet at all. Is it Seraphi calling her to Earth just like she called Jupiter into the stars, or is mere curiosity for the quality of Regenex she would get from Earth?_ _

__At her side, her cousin laughs at a dumb joke; her mother shakes her head at him. Vladie tries to steal her snacks, and Jupiter slaps his hand away in a move that is well-practised and familiar._ _

__Kalique is staring at all of them._ _

__“Tomorrow?” Jupiter asks her a few hours later, her eyes heavy with the need for sleep._ _

__“Tomorrow,” Kalique agrees._ _

__“Your friend is an odd one,” her aunt tells her once Kalique is gone._ _

__Jupiter smiles. “I know.”_ _

__And she thinks about how strange it is to see Kalique among the humans on Earth, to see her on the trains and on the streets, Earth so mundane and ordinary, and people not even looking at Kalique. She's no royal down on the ground, she is a killer, and maybe no one notices those until it's too late._ _

__Jupiter gets up early the next day, hours before breakfast, and she makes her way through several shops before she finds what she was looking for, letting the shop assistant wrap it up in dark blue paper, stars dotted all over it._ _

__Kalique is waiting for her when she gets home._ _

__“Hey,” Jupiter says, and it feels so much like greeting a friend, and for a moment she lets herself believe in the fantasy, lets herself believe that she met Kalique at school, that they are the same age, and she doesn't think of the ashes of the dead that feed Kalique's youth._ _

__She hands her the package, smiles when Kalique looks at her in confusion. "Present."_ _

__Kalique smiles, unwraps the package right on the street, and Jupiter thinks that it might have been a while since somebody gave Kalique a present without much of a reason, without wanting something from her. But then, Jupiter's present has a purpose, too._ _

__"It made me think of you," she says._ _

__Kalique looks at the small metal shield. _Save the Earth,_ it says, _It's the only planet with coffee._ And she is still smiling. "Thank you," she says._ _

__Then, they're off once more._ _

__They buy coffee, they walk down the pier of the harbour at Diversey Avenue, the cityscape like a dream come true. "I think I understand why my mother loved this planet so much," Kalique says, and Jupiter's heart beats faster, beats with hope._ _

__"Yes?" she asks._ _

__"Yes," Kalique agrees._ _

__For the first time, it's Jupiter who reaches out to touch Kalique's hand._ _

__When it begins to rain, they go to the Art Institute, and they walk through the collections. It's been years since Jupiter had been there. She regrets her absence._ _

__She thinks of the grey planet, too, thinks of it surrounded by colours. And Jupiter wonders if there had been a place like this hidden somewhere, filled with art and everything it means, filled with everything no one will ever see again._ _

__Kalique stops in front of Hopper's _Nighthawks_ , and Jupiter still remembers this one, remembers looking at it for the longest time, lost in its colours, lost in the scene._ _

__"This one was my favourite," Jupiter tells her._ _

__Kalique is silent for a moment, her eyes still on the painting when she speaks again. "It's sad."_ _

__"I guess that's why I liked it."_ _

__Kalique smiles at her then, the fond kind of smile she sometimes gives Jupiter. "I can understand that." Then her smile falls away. "I think it's time for me to go home."_ _

__And Jupiter had seen this coming, had known that Kalique wouldn't stay forever, wouldn't stay for long. Still, it almost hurts, it aches in a detached sort of way._ _

__It had been nice, this companionship, this proof that the universe might be cruel and uncaring, but that Jupiter still mattered in its vastness._ _

__She forces herself to smile. "Stay until tomorrow?"_ _

__Kalique nods._ _

__They make their way home, Kalique quiet at her side. Jupiter lets her be and looks at her city instead, at the people, and it hits her again that she almost let them die. She almost married Titus, she almost gave up in front of Balem, and either decision would have killed every person on Earth. And it's still a shock that she could be horrible like this, almost had been horrible like this. It scares her, too, this power she has over too many lives, and how easily it can be twisted out of her grasp, how easily she herself could twist it until there's only death left behind on the city streets she's walking on._ _

__At home, she takes her telescope and gets some snacks, gets one of her coats for Kalique before she grabs one for herself. She makes coffee, too, fills it into a thermos bottle._ _

__"I wanna show you the stars," she tells Kalique._ _

__Kalique raises an eyebrow, and Jupiter smiles. "The stars as we see them."_ _

__In Northely Park, Jupiter finds them a bench, and they sit together with coffee in their hands, letting the cups warm their finger as the sun sets. Then, Jupiter put up the telescope and points it to the east over Lake Michigan. When she looks through it, the stars feel so far away again, unreachable._ _

__"They look different," Kalique says after Jupiter showed her how to use the telescope. She doesn't mean the constellations._ _

__Jupiter nods. "Light pollution is pretty bad in Chicago. It's all the skyscrapers and street lights."_ _

__"It's like they're all dying," Kalique says, and she sounds strange, wistful even, a space traveller cut off from her trails._ _

__"Aren't they?" Jupiter answers._ _

__They stand in silence for a long while, the night as dark as it could possibly be in Chicago, and they watch the bits and pieces the sky gives them of the universe. It's peaceful, comfortable, and Jupiter can imagine her parents falling in love in a moment like this._ _

__"Aren't you afraid?" Kalique asks into the quietness of it all, her voice a clean cut through it. "Of death?"_ _

__Jupiter shrugs. "Sometimes."_ _

__"And yet..."_ _

__"Yes," Jupiter agrees. "And yet."_ _

__"I wanted more time for us," Kalique says, and Jupiter thinks of first meeting her, of finding out about Seraphi._ _

__There are familiar words in her mouth, _I'm not your damn mother_ , but she keeps them in. Kalique is set in her ways, and she is set in her hopes. "We got time," she tells Kalique instead. "You can come visit again. And I’ve got pretty good with space travel."_ _

__"But that's only a few decades, that's nothing at all."_ _

__Jupiter breathes, thinks of a long life happily lived, a human life, thinks of all the things she could still do. "Nah," she says, "It's everything."_ _

__And maybe it's the stars, and maybe it's the city lights, and maybe there is no reason at all for Jupiter's next words. “Promise me,” she says in the dark, her hand wrapped around her telescope, “promise me that you’ll protect Earth after my death if my own protection doesn't carry.”_ _

__Kalique's hand is soft and warm on her own, steady, too. “I promise.”_ _

__Kalique won't ever change, Jupiter knows. The chance for it might be in her blood but it's not in her heart. Kalique is not her mother after all, just like Jupiter isn't Seraphi._ _

__And still, Jupiter chooses to believe in her words._ _

__They spend the night outside, walking through the city, and they don't talk much. Instead, it's just them and Chicago, the ebb and flow and lights, and Jupiter thinks she will miss Kalique, will miss being quiet with her the most. It's comfortable just like Northerly Park had been, and it's peaceful, and Jupiter hardly thinks of the dead._ _

__When the dawn begins to walk with them, painting the sky and the city in new colours, they go home. Jupiter buys Kalique a coffee on the way._ _

__They stop in front of her building, and Jupiter lets herself be pulled into Kalique's arms, into her embrace, and for a moment, Jupiter just lets go. She imagines then what it would be like to have a daughter like Kalique, a girl that will always return to her no matter what. But she doesn't want children, is glad she never did, so glad she can let go of Kalique and watch as she walks away, her heart hurt but remaining whole._ _

__"Kalique!" she calls out just before Seraphi's daughter signals her ship._ _

__Kalique turns back to her._ _

__“Maybe the next time she comes back,” Jupiter says. "Maybe she can be what you want then."_ _

__Kalique nods. “Yes. Maybe.”_ _

__Then, she's gone._ _

__Jupiter looks up to the sky, imagines the stars, imagines them wild and cruel and beautiful. She thinks of Kalique living among them, not a little girl and not lost. And maybe that should worry her, maybe Jupiter should fear her._ _

__But she doesn't, not quite, because she might be a Jones, always looking to the stars, and she might be an Abrasax, destruction in her blood. But mostly, she's a Bolotnikov and she has her mother's strength, her mother's hope._ _

__And Kalique had promised her._ _

__Jupiter smiles._ _


End file.
